The Flight of Aires: Avenging Angel
by AirPen
Summary: The Flock has been taken and Aires is hungry for revenge. But more than one threat has returned and is set to annihilate all life everywhere as an old enemy returns. The clock is ticking until mutation... or By Half. Part two of The Flight of Aires.
1. Avenging Angel

This is the follow on from my first fanfic The Flight of Aires. Please read the first one or this won't make much sense. Thank you all who have read my previous book and bothered to comment so kudos to you guys. Have made this one a K+ rating as it may get a little bloody.

Chapter One  
Avenging Angel

Conrad Puserif is no stranger to conspiracy.  
For the Russian, dead bodies in the closet are an everyday occurrence and the former spy had added a large number of them to his own conscience during his time. Conrad lived and worked in the city of Edinburgh in Scotland where he worked for Itexicon in the bio-weapons division, he also doubled as the head of Itexicon's activities in Scotland. Unfortunately this made him a person of extreme interest on my list. After following the evidence trail all the way to the north Conrad's name had come up in the files. Conrad Puserif worked for the KGB during the Cold War until his partner caught him selling secrets to the British Secret Service and the CIA. His escape from Russia was long and bloody, racking up a body count of at least twenty five KGB agents and one plane pilot. He was granted asylum in the UK and settled in Scotland, Itex soon recruited him and bought all the secrets he had gathered from the Russians, he was rewarded with a cosy flat and a well paid position at Itexicon's Scottish office.  
And just two weeks ago he signed the plane ticket to ship the Flock to the other side of the world. And he was going to tell me where they were.

Conrad opened the door of his luxury flat and reached up to the number pad to deactivate the alarm and turn on the lights. His fingers brushed against the broken plastic and as he stepped forward the remains of the keypad scad across the floor. The hairs on the back of Conrad's neck prickled and he reached up over the top of the door frame for his gun, nearly nineteen years in the KGB had taught him enough when it came to coming into a room with a deactivated alarm.  
"I know where you keep your gun Conrad." The grown man's hand returned to his side as the cold voice came from the armchair next to the window.  
"Its you." He licked his thick lips, his English slightly flecked with a Russian accent. His hand returned to his side, the 9 mm he had hidden in the door frame was gone.  
"You might cover a wide range of people who want you dead Conrad." The dull click of a pistol being cocked punctuated his sentence. "But in all sense of the word I am who you think I am."  
"I would have thought you would have gotten enough information from the other men and women you have butchered. How did my predecessor die?" Conrad edged backwards toward the door. The silhouette in the chair shifted and a bright red dot appeared on the man's heart.  
"She fell out of her taxi on the motorway, very messy." The laser dot moved across the man's body like a surgical tool wielded by a surgeon, picking out the targets on Conrad's body with anatomical precision.  
"I don't know anything about them, I assure you!" Conrad's hand closed on door knob.  
"Wrong." With the silencer attached the only sound Conrad heard was the click as the bolt sent the bullet into his left thigh. He screamed out in pain but the laser levelled on his forehead reduced him to low whimper. "Would you like to revise your answer?"  
"I...don't know!" He spluttered.  
"You'll be astounded how accurate I can be Conrad." The silhouette stood next to the crippled man on the floor. Conrad howled as another bullet reduced his foot to pulp inside his Armani loafers. "Is that your final answer?" The hot muzzle of the silencer pressed into Conrad's forehead.  
"Wait! The Devil's Backbone! Somewhere in Virginia! Their there, all of them! Please don't kill me!" The pressure lessened from the weapon.  
"Are you sure Conrad? Really sure? Because the last six on my list said the same thing." The person behind the weapon cocked his head like a child examining a new toy.  
"I swear to you!"  
"That's good. Thank you for your assistance Conrad." The final shot of the gun bored through Conrad's left eye and reduced it to pulp. Death was instant and painless, despite the hole in his leg and foot. The boy stood up and moved away from the body as it began to bleed into the thick pile carpet. He took a phone from his pocket and hit the only number that was stored on the speed dial.  
"Aires!" Jeb Batchelder's exasperated voice was high and tinny down the cheap phones receiver. "Where are you?"  
"Edinburgh, I've got a location. The Devil's Backbone in Virginia."  
"How...Aires, you haven't been.." He didn't get to finish the sentence.  
"I'll meet you at Glasgow airport, I want a jet waiting for me there for Virginia." Aires looked over his shoulder at the the cooling body. "Try pulling some strings Jeb, its what your good at." The handset snapped shut and the boy walked silently onto the balcony and into the night, slowly becoming a speck on the skyline, then vanishing altogether, leaving the room and its previous incumbent to rot in the cool air.


	2. Interlude: Diagnostics

Interlude One  
Diagnostics

/ run program By Half MkII

….Simulation? Y/N?....

/Y

….Processing data on current megaton yield, weather patterns, population density and geographics. Please wait....

….Simulation Complete....Display? Y/N?

/Y

….Results of simulation: By Half MkII.....

Number of warheads in current possession.....240,000 or more---Insufficient data

Average Payload............................................10 Megatons

Target Perimeter.............................................Prioritize with the greatest population density then moving to the least populated. Remaining warheads will detonate in the atmosphere to spread fallout and other poisonous payload

Total Targets..................................................111,243

Expected death rate of initial blast...................2.21 Billion

Expected death rate of nuclear after effects......5.43 Billion

Total Death Rate............................................99.991% of human population  
94.21% of animal population

Estimated time until Earth re-inhabitable  
(Biological life)...............................................In excess of six million years---Insufficient data

Estimated time until Earth re-inhabitable  
(Robotics)......................................................124 years 9 months

Status of link to United States Missile  
control...........................................................Stable and Undetected

Status of link to Russian Missile  
control...........................................................Stable and Undetected

Status of link to Independent nations  
with nuclear capability...................................Stable and Undetected

Status of link to NATO Missile  
control...........................................................23% capability, full capability 6 days 9 hours 6 minutes

….Save Data? Y/N?....

/Y

….Initiate SCRAM Sequence? Y/N?....

/N

/Set timer to launch SCRAM in 6 days 9 hours 6 minutes. Begin countdown

….Timer Initiated....

/Terminate session and save all data on redundant drive 01. Power Down.

….Session Terminated....

....Time Elapsed 0.12 Seconds....

....Time to launch: 6 Days 9 Hours 6 Minutes....

**Hmm, I'll leave that one to stew for a while shall I? Righto, its going to be a while before my next post but I hope by then to have the next three chapters set up and ready to roll by the 18/01/09, in the mean time some more reviews would be helpful. Thanks for reading so far.**


	3. Judge

Judge...  
Chapter 3

I came to a pounding halt on the tarmac of Glasgow Airport and quickly tucked in my wings. I stood in front of the Learjet and felt a horrible sense of entrapment as I looked at the tiny aircraft. A set of stairs led up to the door, two men in black suits stood on each side of the steps but they didn't even look at me as I approached which suited me fine.  
"Your weapon, sir." The agent yelled over the roar of the engines as they suddenly fired up, forcing me to raise my arm to fend off the wind and show Conrad's pistol that was still stuck into my belt. "No firearms in the air, you'll be briefed on the way to wherever your going."  
I handed over the gun and headed up the steps, taking them three at a time, firing a backward glance at the two men. As soon as I stepped into the cabin the door sealed with a hiss and I really wished I had a weapon.  
"Jeb." The man looked up from his paper up at me. He wasn't smiling.  
"How was Edinburgh?" He threw the paper down on the desk in front of his swivel chair and lent back. He held an empty brandy glass in his hand. "Want to see what would have been on tomorrows headlines before we cleaned up your mess?" He turned the front page to face me, I couldn't help but laugh internally.  
"It's a terrible picture. And I mean, 'The Avenging Angel'? could you have a worse headline?" I said, trying to hold back the smile that was coming from somewhere in the region of my boots.  
"Nice to know you think it's funny! Fourteen people! Slaughtered!"  
"Didn't you hear that?" I raised a finger and cocked my head as if listening for something. "It sounded like better world being blown in on the wind." I sat down and flicked the paper back at him. "If it takes a few bodies to set the world straight what do I care?"  
"Really?" He slammed his brandy glass down on the table, his face bright red. "Patrick Stone, drowned in his own bath water. Jessica Long, crushed under a four by four. I could go on with your efforts to "clear up the world" for hours! Are you ready to become what you set out to destroy?"  
"Like I said, if it gets me what I need, and it gets rid of a few monsters; bonus. I doubt my loving public are going to read in on what these people did for a living, genetic manipulation, bio-chemical warfare for example"  
"They weren't the planners, they were the sheep who did the dirty work"  
"And the ones who got paid for stabbing needles in babies." I pointed out. "You were too slow with your investigation, for all we know the Flock might already be corpses if I hadn't made those pigs squeal"  
"I wasn't prepared to kill for that information." Jeb spat and I got a brief whiff of his brandy laden breath. Then much quieter. "You've changed Aires, your not the same person Max befriended. I wouldn't do this."  
"I would have thought otherwise, it is your daughter locked up you know." His face twisted and I knew I had crossed a line.  
"Don't you think I know that?" He hissed, his voice quiet but deadly. "Do you think it doesn't matter to me? But I need to look at the bigger picture." I raised an eyebrow.  
"And let me guess, The Flock ain't part of your 'big picture'?" Jeb's fist hit me in the middle of my chin without warning, knocking me out of my chair.  
"SAY THAT AGAIN! MURDERER!" I climbed to my feet slowly and looked Jeb in the eye, he was standing and panting heavily.  
"Who's calling who the murderer? Eh Jeb? How many have you fed to Itex for your 'Big Picture'?" Jeb raced at me, head down like a charging rhino. I grabbed him round by the neck and slammed him into the wall of the cabin, holding a few inches off the floor. "Don't call me a murderer Jeb, I prefer the term vigilante." His eyes bulged and he clawed at my hand as he slowly choked. "You don't know what it like to die do you Jeb? Let me tell you. It's like going to sleep but knowing you'll never wake up. Are you feeling that right now? Like your utterly helpless and your cut off from your loved ones? And you know what, death has a funny way of bringing everything into perspective. Because its no point following rules when your enemy doesn't have any. Is it Jeb? Like morels? You know morels Jeb?" I shook him, his bloodshot eyes stared at me and his lips began to form words. "Didn't catch that. Please, do continue." I cocked my ear towards him.  
"Your...a monster." He wheezed.  
"If that'swhat it takes to save my family." I dropped him to the floor and he sucked in a breath like an ugly fish out of water. "So be it." I left him laying on the floor of the cabin and looked around where he had been sitting. A file was in a packet of information, it contained photographs of a large complex surrounded by woodland. "I'll see you when we land Jeb. I'll say hi to The Flock from you." I left him gasping for breath on the floor as the plane banked round and headed for Virginia, headed for my family.  
I'm coming. I thought. I'm coming to save you all.

**Ok, nice short one here just to keep you people happy while I juggle homework around but a little preview of what Aires might be heading to. Please, please, please review as it really is depressing at the moment seeing only one up there. ALL critisism welcome.**

PS if there is anyone reading from ATC Aylesbury Squadron, (Yes I know about you Alex), Halton kicked your backsides at rugby. No denying it. Just accept it.


	4. Knife Edge

Knife Edge  
Chapter 4

The Devils Backbone, Virginia

Max rolled onto her side and bumped right into another body in the confined space of the cage. She instinctively struck out but gentle hands held her softly but firmly.  
"It's ok, it me." Fang's voice brought Max back to the real world. She could just make out his hard features in the weak light from the bare bulb that hung overhead. "You ok?"  
"Yeah." Max tried to shift her weight but Fang's body was pressed so tight they could barley move. "They must really be on a budget, only one cage?" "Everyones still asleep." Fang's voice was so quiet in the cage Max could hardly hear him. "We're all here"  
"Apart from"  
"Yeah, he's not here." Fang sounded like he wanted to hit something. "Those cowards got him"  
"Do you think he might have"  
"Nothing can survive something like that." He shook his head. Max bit her lip and shut her eyes, the memory at Vauxhall Cross coming back with vengeance. His eyes, it was his eyes she remembered, the way they went totally dead in just one second.  
"Max?" Angel's tiny voice came from outside the cage, all Max could see was Fang's dark face in the pale light, her anchor in this Hell hole. "I'm here Ang, you alright?"  
"I'm ok, Gazzy and Total are in here too but their asleep." Max felt her guts twist, she could hear the tiny sobs coming from Angel's cage. "He's dead isn't he"  
"Don't say that, I'm sure he's fine." Max's throat constricted. "They killed him right in front of us, he didn't even notice." Angel's voice broke. "He just died, and he didn't even know"  
"Angel." Fang said softly, Max couldn't speak for fear of breaking into tears herself. "You can't remember him like that, you have to remember him when we were safe. Ok?"  
"Ok." Angel said and fell silent, filling the space with depressed quiet. Max choked back a sob and Fang wrapped her up in a tight embrace as she bawledinto his shoulder. For some reason Aires's death had cut her deep. She had hardly known the boy but she felt like some fleeting part of her had vanished, leaving her only comfort in Fang and her remaining family. He had brought them together, without him she and Fang would still be dancing round each other rather then accepting the fact that they were to be together. He may have been part of the family for only a few days, but he had made his mark by bringing Max and Fang out of their hormonal adolescent shells and making them adults.  
"Well, this is precious!" Max lept to the front of the cage and stared into the face of the person she least wanted to see.  
"You heartless bastard!" She screamed at Derrick King. "You murderer! You shot your own son!"  
"Not my son, just a loose end." He stood there impassively, his eyebrow raised in mock amusement. Standing beside him stood a very bruised Dr Roland ter Borcht. His nose looked like it had been turned on a ninety degree angle and his face was one big purple bruise. Through the open door came a scream and Max flinched. "As you might be aware your counterpart is in a substantial amount of pain. I would hope that she survives or you will be taking her place."  
"What you doing to her? Playing her a few of your monologues?" King's lips went a little bit thinner but he didn't stop.  
"Your clone, she is a strange creature. Very easy to manipulate." He looked up and down the line of cages. "Least I can say for you. I fail to see why Crowe or Jansen allowed you the air to breath"  
"They didn't have much of a say, we don't listen to scum-balls like you." Fang growled from the back of the cage. King knelt down to the cage, his smile stretching across his face. Another scream, much louder came from outside and ter Borcht scurried off.  
"Do you know why I killed Aires? Because he was an extra body bag to carry. Now you, your special. Tough, resourceful, intelligent. Those are the quality's I need."  
"And we'll work for you why?" Max could smell King's expensive aftershave and wondered how this man could have been anyone's father.  
"No, no, no my dear. Your children will, why do you think I put you and Mr Griffiths here together?" Fang exploded, hurling himself at the cage front. King stood up and smiled.  
"Isn't it strange how men are so protective of their prizes? Its one of the few animal reactions we have left."  
"I'll kill you! I swear I'll kill you!" Fang hollered at him, clawing at the bars of his cage.  
"You aren't the first person to say that. But you'll all end up just like little Air." Max couldn't reach the man from inside the cage but she still had one weapon at her disposal, she spat in his face. King took a silk handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his face. "You shan't follow that up Maximum, you may be my guests but I can make your stay very unpleasant here." King turned on his heel and put his head round the door. "Bring her in." Two men in black camo suits and rifles swinging from their shoulders dragged the limp form of a woman into the room. "Have you met my wife?" Derrick rolled the woman over with his loafered shoe like he was handling something diseased.  
"Go to Hell." The woman spat out a glob of blood onto the floor. King kicked her back down and she lay there moaning.  
"Now you see where Aires got his stubbornness from. I think I'll leave you to get acquainted." King left the room and the door slammed shut. The locks on the cages popped open and Max clambered out.  
"You alright?" She helped the woman into a sitting position against one of the tables. She was in a state, she had a nasty black eye and it looked like she hadn't eaten in a long time. But beyond that she still had the strength to crack a grin.  
"I'll live, Derrick has always been quick to write someone off." She squinted at Max. "Your the real Max aren't you"  
"Guess so." Max said and tried to support the woman before she slid onto the floor. "Are you Aires's mom"  
"Yes. How is he?" Max felt her heart break. She didn't know. "I'm sorry...when we were taken...he got shot." Angela's eyebrows raised but a small smile spread over her face.  
_He's alive Max, and he's coming for you._ Max blinked. Angela's voice echoed through her head but her lips didn't move. Her mouth dropped open as realisation dawned on her.  
_You!_  
_Took you long enough to work that one out._

The Devil's Backbone, Virginia  
11.2 Kiliometers east of Itex Station Zero Four

"What do you think?" M handed me a set of night-vis binoculars, not that I needed them in the light of the full moon. I focused on the edge of the station, the razor topped fence was being patrolled by men with dogs and in various towers were snipers with rifles mounted on all sides.  
"Its a fortress, all they need is a tank and an artillery unit and it might be Camp Bastion we're looking at." I handed her back the binoculars and headed back down into the small ravine we were camped in. The hole in the rock wall that surrounded the valley had been standing for millions of years and luck for us many holes and crevasses had formed over the years. The chasm was twenty feet wide and opened to the size of a football field as you went deeper. If I reached high enough I could touch the rock of the cave roof and brush away layers of sandstone to reveal entombed mollusc's and shells from when the sea would have been flowing around us millions of years ago and these long dead animals would have called this place home.  
"I have a detachment of Apaches standing by, they can be here in the hour but we can's stay here much longer." M hobbled up beside me, the attack on MI6 had injured a good many men and women, M had caught a bit of falling shrapnel in the calf, fracturing the bone but she had made it clear she was going to lead the offensive on Itex. "Every moment we wait we risk being detected. And the SAS team will be here in the next few minutes. We need an action plan and get out of here before we're missed and the US senate are offering us lodgings at Langley until we can sort this mess out, not that their happy about it"  
"Why would that be? I thought you had a special relationship with the Americans"  
"I do, Britain as a whole doesn't. Both of our governments have been disagreeing about everything from Global Warming to nuclear disarmament." M sat down next to me as I began loading up a magazine with bullets. "If there wasn't so much at stake I doubt they would have even let us into the country or forced us to use US Marines instead of our own."  
"So either way the worlds screwed." I muttered, the silence broke only by the click as the bullets knocked against each other in the magazine.  
"We're balanced on a knife edge. Too much is happening at once for the world to cope, Global Warming, Israel, war and terrorism. The world is fracturing." M rubbed her face. "And we need one hell of a miracle to set it right again"  
"Frankly I don't care. All that matters to me is getting back my family." I cocked the rifle back and placed it on the floor. The electric lamp illuminated M's face as she studied me intently. "You've changed Aires."  
"Yeah, I died and came back to life. I'd call it a big change." I muttered, looking at the sandy floor of the cave.  
"Your not the fifteen year old boy I met in MI6. You did something very few adults would be able to do." I glanced up at M. "I won't ridicule you for your actions Aires, you did what I would have done myself in your position but now you need to look at yourself and think about what you are going to become if you carry on down this road." She lent in close to my ear and lowered her voice to a whisper. "None of the Flock need to know what you did to save them but the worst you can do now is to frighten them. I'm not saying become a pacifist but analyse the situation for any other alternative before taking a life"  
"So you want me to become half monk, half hit-man?" I asked her. She lent back and smiled crookedly in her wiry way of hers that reminded my of Iggy.  
"I want you to be a fifteen year old with a bit of an attitude problem"  
"Well I've got the perfect role model. Max needs a stage act with her wit." I chuckled.

**A nice long one for you all to enjoy while I put the finishing touches to the ending. Will probably be updating around next Monday now as I've got a drama portfolio to do. Oh the joys of education. Will see you in about a week along with Chapter 5: Execution**

PS: May be a while before next post, real life is getting in the way. Estimated Update time is Feb by will hopefully be able to finish by then and I assure you, theres more to come. Alot more.


	5. Execution

Chapter 5  
Execution

"So your Max's Voice?" Angel curled up need to Iggy who automatically but an arm around her and Total who was sitting in her lap.  
"Yeah, so is Jeb but I'm sort of her main Voice." Angela didn't look up from the keypad she was trying to dismantle with the ballpoint pen she had managed to find in the empty room.  
"Are you different? Like Air?" She looked over and smiled at Angel.  
"I can speak to Max and Jeb, but no, I'm not a hybrid." She returned to the clump of circuitry and swore quietly as the smell of burning plastic filled the room.  
"How far away is help? None of us has eaten in ages." Max knelt next to Angela and spoke quietly, more out of habit then stopping the others hearing.  
_Not far, M is with Aires along with an SAS team. Jeb is at Langley now waiting for us.  
_From behind the door there was a scream of pain and Angela flinched.  
_We just have to hope that he's fast enough_.  
"Why?"  
_Jeb told you about the Aires Virus and that Itex needs a vaccine which comes in two parts; one to keep the infected person alive and the other to stop the degredation of memory. Well Aires was only one part.  
_Angela looked up at Max.  
_And you were the other.  
_"What?"  
_All Avian-Human hybrids have the gene that stops the death effect of the virus, but the only way bind the two parts is to inherit the genes. And next door, your clone is in labour with Aires's child.  
_"That's impossible, he never even met the other me, its not even been nine months!." Max said shaking her head but Angela was still looking at Max  
_Derrick is desperate, he used drugs to lower the gestation period. And if he managed to get a sample of tissue from Aires before he left...  
_"Oh my God..." Max breathed. "So if she gives birth..."  
_They will have both halves of the vaccine and everyone will be in danger._

The woods were totally silent, the trees hardly uttering a whisper as the light breeze went through them. A load of deer were off to the right of us and were blissfully unaware of our presence, above us and owl watched with interest as the shadowy forms below it made their way toward the noisy, bright group of buildings not far away.  
This of course meant nothing to me; all that mattered currently was the pistol in my belt and the rifle in my hands. Despite protests from the SAS team and M I was sitting with the assault on the camp and getting ready to complete what I had set out to do two weeks ago.  
There were thirteen men and women in the team and they all had been told what they were going in for and the price of not coming back without it. All in another days work for them. We had left the cave about two hours ago and we weren't far from the station.  
"You think you'll hack it?" The leader of the team who only identified himself as Hawk 1 had said to me as I slung a rifle over my shoulders as we were about to move out. "You won't fly off when the going gets rough?" I didn't speak back; I just cocked my rifle back and went to the front of the cave, waiting for them to gear up.  
"You alright lad?" A man with a thick northern accent crept up beside me noiselessly. God that scared the crap out of me. I nodded but didn't say anything. "Don't worry, we'll get you in. But remember, it's all up to you once your in there. Alright?"  
"Yeah." I gripped the rifle tight, trying to wring some comfort from the cold metal. The fence of the station came into view far too quickly than I liked but when we advanced on the wire, the same calm descended on me like when I was dealing with Conrad or any of the other Itex monsters that I had dealt with. This was all they were, monsters who needed to be eradicated.

Alarm bells went off as the wire was cut and all hell broke loose. Someone threw a smoke grenade out and the ground around us began pattering with bullets that whizzed and ricocheted off rocks. We ducked low and ran to the side of the third building before splitting into two groups, one heading for the garage, the other for the holding cells in the building we were using as cover. To our right one of the sniper towers was torn apart as a grenade blew the roof off the flimsy tin construction. The smoke was being blown across the side of the building and soon I could barely see the person in front of me. To my right I heard the crunch of a boot and twisted to fire. The guard hit the floor, two holes in his chest.  
"Charges!" One of the other team members ran forward and pulled a wrapped package from his belt before slapping it onto the side of the wall. The person in front pushed me to the floor. The wall blew out in a cascade of brick debris and dust that added to the cover of the smoke grenade.  
"GO!" I was pushed through the hole and into the decimated room. It appeared to be a lab of some kind, chemical beakers and the like were stacked on shelves to the right and lines of chemical equations filled the white boards on the side. Bricks and the remains of some kind of complex machine were strewn across the tiled floor. I clambered over the rubble and through the door.  
The door shut behind me and all along the corridor automatic lights snapped on, bathing the white washed walls in incandescent light. I headed along for about twenty yards then stopped outside a door. I could hear breathing on the other side. I wrenched open the door and dragged out the man by the lapels of his lab coat.  
"Please don't kill me." I cringed, another worm out for no one but himself.  
"Shut up or I will. Your no use to me dead."

The White-Coat took me down into the basement of the building, the sounds of gunfire and grenades slowly dissipating as we put more space between us and the surface. The flight of steps headed down to another small corridor that ran left to right from the steps. There were three doors, all made of toughened steel and with a keypad mounted on each wall beside them.  
"I can open the doors." The White-Coat went to the nearest door and typed in a six digit code, I caught the first three numbers: 948. The smell of rotting flesh filled the corridor and I was repulsed, fearing the worst. I dragged the White-Coat inside despite his protests and turned on the light. Cages lined the walls and a table in the middle held scientific equipment. Dark shapes were inside the cages and my guts twisted. Please don't be them, not after all this.  
I went to the cages and looked inside. There was a child inside, dead and slowly being defiled by the germs and microbes that were salvaging the body. But it wasn't any of the Flock. It didn't make it any easier when I pulled the limp form out of the cage and placed him on the floor. There were nine cages and eight of them held bodies, the last however was occupied.  
When I dragged the little boy out of the cage, limp and immobile it was easy to mistake him for dead. His hair was matted and caked with grime and his body was covered in filth but as I placed him on the floor next to his other cage-mates, the cold of the floor made him stir. The White-Coat looked down at the eight bodies on the floor then looked at me.  
"Cover them." I muttered to the White-Coat, trying to lift the one survivor into a sitting position. The boy had been altered unlike the others in the room, on his back a membrane of thin flesh covered a network of bones that spread across from two hollows in his spine.  
"Its ok. I'll look after you." I took my canteen off my belt and unscrewed it, wetting the boys lips. He opened his mouth but his throat was so swollen he couldn't drink or speak. A tiny whimper made my heart clench. This boy was in so much pain. His skin was pale and I pressed a finger to his neck, there was barely a flutter.  
"Morphine." I said to no one in particular. "Bring me morphine."  
"He's too far for that." The White-Coat muttered.  
"Just get it." I hissed at him. The White-Coat rolled his eyes and threw a syringe and a vial to me. I filled the syringe to the full. "I'm so sorry." I slipped the needle into his arm and pushed the plunger. I felt his heart slow, flutter one last time then fall still. I placed him next to the other bodies and covered him with a cloth. I didn't take much comfort from the fact I had saved him from further hours of pain and suffering. "Did you do this to them?"  
The White-Coat glanced at the rifle in my hands.  
"Did you do this to them?" I repeated, not taking my eyes off the nine bodies on the floor.  
"It's all for the greater advancement of ma..." I grabbed him by the neck and threw him against the wall.  
"THEN WHERES YOUR HUMANITY!" I roared at him as he crawled to his feet. "HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU KILL CHILDREN FOR YOUR PETTY EXCUSES!" He crawled for the door, reaching up for the keypad. He didn't have the same speed as last time, I had the full six digits. The door opened and he fell out into the corridor, back peddling.  
"You need me!" He held his head where a large gash ran along his scalp. "You can't open the doors without me!"  
"I'll think of something." I shot him twice, above and below his heart. His body went limp and draped itself over the steps like a puppet without its strings. I left the body on the steps to rot and went back to the door, shutting it tight and putting a bullet through the keypad so the White-Coats wouldn't disturb this sub-standard crypt.  
I went to the next door and tapped in the code, praying that the silence behind the door wasn't the call sign of another room filled with death.  
"Air!" A woman with bushy brown hair flew at me and held me tight, it took me a moment to realise who it was.  
"Mum, are you ok?" I meant to say it with a warm voice but all that came out was a businesslike growl. She was in a bad way, her hair was matted and her face had lost its healthy glow.  
"Yeah." She rubbed her eyes and nodded. "I am now." I nodded, sentiment wasn't high on my list at the moment.  
"Aires?" Angel was looking at me with wide eyes. "Why have you got a gun?" I looked down at the weapon and I knew instantly that Angel had read my thoughts. Her face changed to abject horror and she hid behind Max, her mouth forming the word "Murderer" over and over. The Flock instantly tensed and I felt my gut clench. After all this, all I've done for them they were going to reject me.  
"Come-on." Max grabbed Angel's hand and made for the door, hardly looking at me apart from frightened glances. Even Fang looked scared behind his dark eyes. "Are you coming or not?" Max muttered from the bottom of the steps. I looked at her for a moment. She wasn't celebrating the fact the Flock had been rescued and I knew I would be judged by them sooner or later but maybe I could try to redeem myself. How hard that would be I don't know but I couldn't let my only family walk away from me.  
"I'll meet you outside." Mum said. "I need to make sure something is dealt with." I nodded once and headed up the steps, past Max's stony face, past the body of the White-Coat, and up into the seething cauldron of madness that was the surface world.


	6. Sometimes you lose

Chapter 6

Sometimes You Lose

Sorry this one has taken so long but I'm currently writing these in hospital after tearing a muscle skiing in Scotland during the half term. Thank God for the National Health Service and painkillers. I'm heading home on the 25th hopefully so things should be back to normal soon enough. Hope you like this one.

Angela shut the door behind her, shutting out the noise of The Flock running up the steps and into the main camp. The room Angela had entered was lit brightly but smelt heavily of sweat and blood. A curtain was drawn across one side and the form of a bed shone through the curtains. Heavy breathing filled the confined space. Angela pulled back the curtain and stood beside the bed. A lump rose in her throat as she looked down at the limp form on the bed. The clone had been made to look exactly like Max, same face, same personality, same everything. So watching Max's mirror image laying dead and empty of life between the covers she couldn't help seeing the original Max in her minds eye. The clones body was twisted and her belly was distended at an imposable size. Angela placed a cover over the clones face and whispered a prayer for forgiveness.  
She left the bed side and looked round for the child, dust falling from the ceiling as muffled explosions filtered down through from the complex above. A incubation chamber was set in against the side wall, Angela slowly approached the plastic cover and looked inside. The clean sheets hadn't been disturbed. Angela's breath caught for a moment, then she realised her breath wasn't the only one in the room.  
"Roland." Angela stepped back from the incubator and felt the muzzle of a pistol in her back. "You don't need to do this."  
"What elze iz zer for me eh?" ter Bortch's shattered nose hadn't improved his speech and his entire face had suffered from the bruises. "I has notzing."  
"You don't have to turn the child over Roland, we can help." She turned round to face the bruised and battered Dr ter Borcht and held her hands by her side. A small wrapped bundle was held in Roland's left arm, a pistol in the other hand. "Itex isn't the winning team any more Roland, give me the baby. You can come with us."  
"And get thrown in jail?" He rocked the small bundle in his arms. "Iz zon't think so." He raised the pistol up. Angela knew she had only a fraction of a second before the German's podgy finger closed on the trigger and the room would home two bodies. She twisted her hand up and smashed into ter Borcht's, the round discharging with explosive force into the air above her head, deafening her briefly but Borcht hadn't been expecting the sudden movement and he had been knocked back by the strike. Angela ducked under his outstretched arm and grabbed the wrapped bundle from his arms, racing for the open door. Her foot crossed the threshold and a second shot rang out just as the steel door slammed closed. Angela hit the ground and yelled out as her left arm span round from her and a constellation of blood formed on the opposite wall.  
She rolled onto her side and groaned before checking the white bundle in her arms. It took a moment to realise the bundle was moving and Angela's ears didn't register the quiet thumping of fists on the sealed steel door or the crying babe resting on her chest until her ears recovered from their deafness.  
"Let me out!" She looked back at the door, the keypad was in tatters and the bolts had been lowered into place. The room was totally sealed off. She stood up and cradled her injured arm to her chest as the bullet hole in her shoulder throbbed with pain but adrenaline was masking the worst of it. She looked down at the child in her arms. He looked back. The baby boy looked remarkably like Max, but the ice blue eyes were undoubtedly Aires. The child was unnaturally quiet and Angela thought for a moment that it wasn't only a child's intelligence watching her but something like a alert bird of prey, watching every move.  
She took one last look at the door, trying to rationalise leaving Borcht to die in his coffin, then turning up the steps she left the doomed man to his deserved fate.

"About time!" Hawk 1 yelled as Mum appeared from the rubble and sprinted toward us. There weren't many guards left and many had fled into the woods but M had said there was a helicopter headed for us over the radio. We were holed up in the main storage hangar of the camp, hiding behind canisters of various gases and plastic boxes. I threw open the side door of the building as she ran inside, bullets catching at her heels despite the covering fire from the from where most of the team were holding the few remaining guards. Her left arm was limp at her side and blood was seeping into her shirt. I tore a bandage from my belt and rolled up her sleeve.  
"It only grazed you." I bound the wound tight and tied it off. She nodded her thanks before holding out a small bundle to me. It was a tiny baby, only a few hours old but looking up at me with hard eyes like he was examining me and trying to decide an opinion of me.  
"Give me your rifle, look after him." I wordlessly handed over my weapon and cradled the child. We looked at each other for a long time, something ticking over in the back of my mind but not quite...  
"Aires!" I looked up. Max was looking franticly at me. "We need to move!" I ran doubled over as stray bullets raced over my head and headed after Max. We went to the back of the hangar where a truck stood, Nudge sitting in the drivers seat, wires out in her lap as she tried to start the engine.  
"Sometime today missy!" The Scottish SAS man lent on the bonnet and fired off some rounds toward the front of the hangar as the team abandoned their positions and headed for the truck.  
"Yes!" Nudge punched the air as the engine purred into life. I clambered into the back with the rest of the Flock and held the baby to my chest tightly. The SAS team, The Flock and my mother were a tight squeeze in the back of the truck but we managed to fit even if the doors didn't fully shut.  
"What now?!" Hawk 1 yelled at Nudge over the din of bullets hitting the side of the truck. "We can't drive out the front!" Nudge gunned the throttle and pulled hard on the wheel, knocking over canisters and boxes.  
"Who ever said about the front?" Nudge lined up with the side of the hangar, the flimsy aluminium looking even more feeble in the face of the seven ton truck. The corrugated metal crumpled like it had been made out of brown paper, the truck passing straight through and out before turning toward the barricaded exit. Slabs of concrete had been lined up so the truck had to take a snaking path to exit the compound but Nudge drove right on through, a massive grin on her face as the grill broke the wooden bar that blocked the road and marked their freedom.  
"Choppers!" Fang yelled. We looked out and over the tree line, came the buzz on an engine and a helicopter raced toward us. It wasn't any model I recognised with short stubby wings and cannons slung under each of them it looked far to small to be a real chopper. When I saw it didn't have a glass cockpit it hit me.  
"It's a UAV!" I yelled just as the robotic craft let fly with its cannons, the armour piercing rounds skimming the ground ahead of us, a sound like hail raining down on the roof.  
"Then why isn't it shooting us?!" Gazzy yelled. I looked up at the UAV as we bounced along the road, its black wings holding it at speed with us.  
"He's right, why is it missing?"  
"It didn't." Mum yelled, pointing into the driving compartment. The bullets had torn through the top of the compartment and into the truck. Blood was splattered up the windscreen.  
"NUDGE!"  
Everything flew forward as the truck hit one of the trees that doted the roadside. The front compartment of the truck crumpled like an accordion, windscreen punched in and the steering column shot out like a cannon ball. I was sent flying through the back and pain erupted in my shoulder. Carnage reigned for a matter of seconds but the damage was absolute. Finally there was silence.  
I rose out of my dazed state to the sound of crying and moans of pain. The little bundle in my arms was wriggling and making a lot of noise but he was alive. I looked over at my shoulder and groaned. A foot long steel bar had been punched through my arm and I couldn't move, pinned in place. I couldn't heal the hole with the bar in it so I was royally screwed until someone lifted me off. My left foot also looked like it was pointing the wrong way.  
"Max?" I looked around the wreckage of the truck, lumpy forms the only indication anyone had been there.  
"Max?" Fang. One of the shapes detached itself from the carnage of the crushed truck and crawled over to one of the other forms.  
"I'm all right." Max's strained voice come from my left and something moved.  
"Me too." Gazzy checked in along with Iggy, Angel and Total.  
"Nudge?" There wasn't a reply. "Fang get Nudge." Someone clambered past me and into the driving compartment. "Someone find a light, now!"  
"She's not breathing!" A light clicked on and the back of the truck was lit up in pale yellow light. I looked to my left and quickly looked away. Hawk 1 hadn't been so lucky to avoid the bar that had only hit my shoulder, it extended out of his left eye socket. I couldn't see much from where I was pinned down but I could see my mother slowly rising out her daze, a small cut above her eye. I looked back round just as they dragged Nudge out of the crushed driving compartment and laid her down on the floor. I couldn't see her face but blood trickled down her arm in some kind of morbid river.  
"No pulse." Max muttered and began giving CPR. "Come on baby, breath! Seven, Eight, Nine..." The mangled wreck of the truck was totally silent, apart from the tiny sobs and gasps as Max fought over Nudge.  
"Max..." Fang's soft voice came out of the blackness. "Max she's gone." He tried to put an arm around her but she slapped him away and kept compressing Nudge's chest. The Flock sat around Nudge, tears streaming down every cheek but no one spoke.  
"You've never shut up in all your life, don't start now." Max pleaded and breathed two more breaths into Nudge's body. "Fight dammit! Just wake up!" She screamed at the tiny body. "Please Nudge. Fight!" I shut my eye's.  
Nudge had gone.  
"Max, its Ok." Fang wrapped his arm round her shoulders and held her tight, not taking his eyes off Nudge's body. "We need to go." Max nodded. I felt like the bottom of my world had just opened up. Somehow it felt like the entire world had lost its colour and life, all that was left was this ruined metal coffin and the tear soaked faces before me.  
"Hawk 1, this is Seaking, we're heading for your location, is anyone hurt?" Mum reached over and took the radio from the dead SAS man's belt.  
"We hear you." Mum sighed into the radio. Outside I could hear the thud of a Chinook rotor blades. "We were ambushed by a UAV, most of the SAS team are dead, the rest are injured." She glanced at Max as she howled like an animal loosing her young and the crying faces around her.

"And Nudge is dead."


	7. Interlude: Recommend Action

Interlude:

Recommend Action

...System Boot Sequence...

...Mainframe Operation System running...

…Input Query?

/Query-Calculate Success Rate of UAV Aerial attack

…Calculation Complete…

…Display? Y/N?

/Y

…Designated Targets: Aires (Catalyst/ Subject 19)

Biological Offspring of Subject 19

…Terminated Targets: Nudge (Subject 05)

5 Members of Secret Air Service

…Success Rate: 0

…Opportunity to Rectify Error: 0

…Designation: Mission Failure

/New Query

...Input Query...

/Query-What is the chance of Subject Group 01 (The Flock) and associates influencing By Half?

...Calculating...

...Chance: Minimal at this time...

/What is the chance of Subject: Derrick King influencing By Half?

…Calculating...

...Chance: Great. Subject has knowledge of whereabouts and AIRES Project opposes By Half

/Recommend action

...Destroy both subjects...

/Dispatch Recon Unit 045 to Langley, Virginia to gather intelligence on Subject Group 01 (The Flock). Dispatch Robotic Extermination Team to Subject: Derrick King's location.

...Recon Unit 045 en route to Langley...

...RET en Route to Itexicon Headquarters: Los Angeles...

...Time to By Half Mk 2...

...4 Days, 21 Hours, 9 Minutes...

**Just a small update. Due to the loss of my memory stick time for updates has been significantly increased. Sorry to all those reading but bare with and I'll be posting regularly again. **

**...In the meantime for your entertainment, here is a man with a tape recorder up his nose...**


	8. Genesis

Genesis  
Chapter 8

Derrick King was a defeated man.  
He sat in his office, the sprawling city of Los Angeles laid out beyond his window. The lights of the skyscrapers stood like lances planted in the ground, pointing to the Heavens in a testament to human natures desire to do big things for very little reason other than the glory of the act. Deep in the city the young enjoyed the pleasures that a city could after the lights had gone down and the people slept. Across Santa Monica Bay a slither of the sun could just be seen, balancing on the rim of the world, unsure whether it might rise or fall as if it was in the process of deciding.

King loathed it.

This was the only remaining Itexicon building not being watched by an outside government and aside from a skeleton crew there was no-one below in the outfitted labs. No progress being made, no schemes and no profit. Itex had been broken into a few exiled scientists running as far as they could before the UN brought Itex into the open. Deep down King knew this was going to happen, but there was no point trying to rationalise the fact, someone had leaked massive amounts of data to the UN, someone high up with extensive know-how with at least a level 9 clearance to the Itex Grid. Experiment manifests, Robotix Plans, old documents about the failed By Half experiment.  
But luckily nothing about AIRES.  
King snorted to himself.  
They may as well have thrown AIRES into the mix along with all the stuff about the Mainframe and Jonathan Crowe. King had no vaccine to immunise the Itex leaders against the AIRES virus so the project was a failure along with everything about Itexicon. Maybe it was time to vanish, maybe head to Russia, he liked Russia. And Russia would like him with the 16 Billion US Dollars in stolen funding sitting in a secret account in Zurich.  
All he needed was a way to avoid the Secret Services that were baying for his blood. A brief smile crossed his lips and he picked up his mobile, turning to look out of the window into the sprawling mess he had vowed to reduce to dust, all in the name of order and the planet. His only enemy had been the world itself but one adolescent freak had reduced his plan to nothing with the help of a bunch of British gun monkeys and a baby.  
He took another long contemptuous look at the chaos below him and was about to dial his mobile when something caught his eye.  
A pair of bright blue dots, travelling through the air, darting between the spires of buildings and always centring again in perfect unison. Realisation dawned on him like the sun outside his window as the sky flashed red with blood as dawn arrived with all the drama Mother Nature could muster.  
King turned and ran.

Many people say that justice is a figment of the imagination.

A lie designed to justify the acts of a supposedly higher power who controls the lives and actions of the lower beings that roam the Earth. What ever power people believe in there is an element of possibility, how will the situation turn out? What will the effects be? Who will suffer and who will benefit? We place trust in a system of chance which is un-bias, devastatingly fair and invisible. A system that is governed by the movement of trillions of atoms as they are governed by the exact same system of chance and probability. There have also been many points in the life of the world where this system has enacted its terrible judgement based on the movement of a tiny clutch of atoms. The bullet that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and began the 1st World War. The single atom split by the Manhattan Project and heralded the age of the nuclear bomb. The single rock that became the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.  
So it might interest those reading to know that if the glass-maker who made the widows of Derrick King's office hadn't added a secondary covering to the panels the missiles would have passed through the glass and killed Derrick King, therefore reducing the chances of the human races survival to nearly nothing.

So it goes to show, that sometimes, ever so rarely, God gets it right.

Derrick King dived through the door, slamming into the far wall as the missiles detonated against the glass and sent a wave of compressed air that dashed King further down the corridor before he came to a stop, winded and a gash in his scalp. His world span for a moment before he staggered to his feet and lent against the wall groaning. His hearing returned not long after his sight and sense of balance, so when the sound of pneumatics reached his ears it took a moment to connect the sound to his memory. He glanced round briefly, yelled out and ran, the Robotix Soldier grinding into motion, tight joints squealing in an unearthly chorus. Jumping over toppled filing cabinets and desks King was the more agile of the the man and machine but he could already feel his legs seizing up.  
But as his legs worked, so did his brain.  
This can't be a malfunctioning robot, this was planned and coordinated. The missiles, the soldiers, the location. His brain pieced together the facts and the truth crashed down around him, sending neurones into sparks of logic and terrible realisation. The leak to the UN, the Hyde Park Incident, the malfunctions.  
Only one possibility, but that was impossible. A tiny voice rose up in the back of his head.  
Only improbable.  
He turned sharply down a set of steps as the Soldier navigated a fallen water dispenser. King dived into the lab he had spent so much of his working life in and punched in a twelve digit pin code into the bio freezer next before picking out a single test tube with a red strip of tape round the top. The words "AIRES VIRUS: STRAIN 01" were written in black felt tip on the tape. The Robotix Soldier entered the lab, blue eyes whirring in to focus on King in the half light.  
"Don't try and do anything, this smashes, all of Los Angles is dead in 15 minutes." He shook the vial as if it was a detonator to a bomb. "Back off." He ordered the robot. Outside the door more sets of blue eyes flashed in the light. They knew he was going to end up down here. Cornered like a rat.  
"You will also die? Correct?" The closest of the robots intoned in its flat voice.  
"No! I want you to..."  
"By releasing the AIRES virus you would also die. Our objectives are the same. Proceed." You can't argue with the logic of a robot. Even if it was flawed.  
"Then I won't do it!" King nearly whimpered.  
"Then you will die." The robots advanced, weapons sliding down into grooves in their arms and hands. King screwed his eyes shut and clenched his fists tight.  
Then something hit him in the side of the head.  
"Ow!" He yelped, looking around for the projectile before he saw a small cylinder with a series of blue LED's set along the edge, each one quickly turning red. The effect on the robots was more profound.  
Every hair on King's body stood on end as Electromagnetic energy flooded the room and gutting the lights. Instantly frying the delicate circuitry of the Robotix Soldiers, turning rigid and toppling backwards. King would have laughed if he wasn't yelping from the electric shocks as they raced along his body. After a while the shocks stopped and from outside a single flash light looked inside.  
"Sir?" The face of one of the lab techs came into view. He didn't even know the young man's name. "Are you alright?"  
"Yes. Of course I am." King said, quickly slipping back into his usual arrogance despite the near death experience he had just been through. "Shall we get out of here?"  
"I guess so sir." The young man lead the way up the steps, casting his light forward and stepping over the fried carcasses of the Robotix Soldiers. "Little EMP grenade sir. Been working on them for a while. Saw you running down the corridor and grabbed a few. Worked though didn't they sir?" Derrick gave the man a look and he didn't speak again.  
"Don't suppose your phones working?" Derrick asked as they entered the stairwell and headed down. The young man handed him an iPhone and they continued wordlessly until they got to basement level.  
"Go get me a car. Your my new driver for the day." The young man's mouth opened in argument for a moment before leaving the stairwell leading into the underground car park. King dialled in a number and put the phone to his ear.  
"We have a situation......yes.........I know..............at this point we have very little choice......I will be leaving Los Angeles in the hour.........hopefully this will draw them out......if it is him, which I'm sure of........I'll get into contact with Angela.......they'll need me..........we should be back on track if this swings my way.........well then that is our only option...........as soon as I'm clear, release the virus into Los Angeles. With any luck we'll have the vaccine in the next 24 hours, or we're all dead." He looked down at the vial sitting in the palm of his hand. "Including the Flock."

**Sorry about the whole weird monolouge about justice, I was feeling dramatic. Anyhoo, next chapter may take a while, in the middle of GCSE's and life is generally getting in the way. But more is defo on the way. Peace out!**


	9. Dad Shock

Chapter 9  
Dad Shock

We couldn't take back Nudge's body.  
When the Seaking landed in a glade just off from the road, medics rushing out to the van with stretchers and the kits, they took one look at her body and moved on to the next man.  
The Flock sat on the edge of the glade as the three survivors were loaded into the helicopter, not making a sound, just holding one another. I didn't join them, I stood with my mother, watching as bodies wrapped in blankets were lined up on the ground. The smallest of the bodies was the last to be laid on the ground.  
"I wasn't fast enough." I said, not taking my eyes off the tiny body laying wrapped in its death shroud.  
"Don't say that." My mother said, the baby in her arms slept, oblivious to the grief around him. "You saved the lives of more people than you think tonight." I turned to look at her.  
"At the expense of others lives, I don't find any comfort in that." I muttered. She took hold of my arm.  
"Aires, you have to learn this very early on, you can never save everyone." She looked at me, there were tears in her eyes. I took a look around briefly then dragged her over to the edge of the glade, away from the bodies, away from anyone who would hear. The baby boy opened his eyes but didn't make any noise.  
"I want to know exactly whats going on. How did you know I was coming? How did you know about everything that has happened while you've been locked up here?" I didn't miss the brief hesitation before she replied.  
"I've heard things from..."  
"BULL! Every action thats happened, every single thing down to where we were camped you knew so don't feed my your crap!" Out in the glade the Flock looked up and Max stood away from their huddle, starting to head toward us. My mother looked at me, her eyes suddenly hard.  
"Your not the only ones who have been changed." She hissed at me. I raised an eyebrow.  
"Your Max's Voice, I get that much." I retorted. "That still doesn't explain your information."  
"There are different abilities that have been developed Aires. Nudge's magnetism, Fang's camouflage. Think about it Aires." She brushed past me, heading toward the helicopter, leaving me stood just within the tree line. Max came to a stop next to me.  
"You OK?" I nodded, looking after my mother as she spoke with one of the Seaking crew.  
"Have you ever come across anyone with a precognitive ability at Itex?" Max shook her head.  
"No, I've not seen anyone like that." A sad laugh passed her lips then she looked at me staring at the rows of bodies on the ground. "You did your best Aires. Your the strongest here. " She held out her arms and wrapped me in an awkward embrace. "We won't abandon you. You didn't abandon us." I stood for a moment, stiff and immobile against her warm body, then after months of holding my heart locked inside I broke. I began crying into her shoulder, heaving sobs as I felt the weight of the past few weeks fall from my shoulders. All that pain and death and grief being washed off in a moment of kindness. After a while I became aware of the Flock around us, hands resting on my shoulder from Iggy and Fang, comforting words coming from Angel and Gazzy, even Total nuzzled at my hip wining softly. After a while one of the crew came over. "We're ready." I let go of Max and rubbed my face clear of tears.  
"Come on." Max nodded and we headed into the middle of the glade. Thirteen bodies were laid close together on the grass, twelve of them SAS operatives, one of them too young to be laying there but there none the less by some cruel trickery. There were small black boxes attached to each of the bodies, three viscous liquids held separate within the box. The Seaking crew were kneeling next to the shrouded bodies, a draw pin leading into the boxes on each body. We stopped by Nudge's body and one of the crew came over to us.  
"What do I do?" The woman in her medic uniform took a brief look then pointed to the pin in the side of the box, no explanation needed to be said. Max offered for anyone to say some words, Iggy tried but his words descended into sobs before he could finish. There was little to say, tears did it for us. Max knelt down and kissed Nudge's forehead, tightening the shroud once more and tugging the pin from the box. Compressed liquid magnesium combined with Thermite and sodium within the confines of the box, white fire spreading outside the box and lighting the shroud and the body within. Nudge's body was cremated at 9000 degrees centigrade within thirty seconds.  
We were left crying over a blackened patch of grass in the middle of the glade as the rest of the crew paid their last respects to the twelve SAS men and women who had given their lives for the five remaining Flock members. Fang was the first to turn toward the Seaking, leading Angel away with Total at her heels, Iggy and Gazzy went next with Max left with me.  
"Go on, I need a minute." Max nodded, squeezed my shoulder and caught up with Fang as the crew boarded the Seaking and the rotors began to spin up. I looked from the rows of blackened grass to the sky. Far off in the distance a bird called, a piercing cry that cut over the roar of the rotors.  
I picked the pistol from my belt and looked at the black piece of metal in my hands. A month ago when I had been back in England, enacting my crusade on Itex without mercy or remorse I had picked up this weapon and felt nothing. All I felt now was disgust. I held the weapon in my hand, weighed it once, then hurled it into the trees, a final glint of black iron vanishing into the grass.  
I climbed into the helicopter with The Flock. Max had been talking to my Mother, the conversation abruptly stopping as I stepped inside. Max looked up at me, nodded once then we lifted off the ground, hovering briefly over the glade and away over the trees, scattering Nudge's ashes out into the night sky and away like stardust.

Hours later we were sitting in a warm room at CIA head quarters. The smaller kids were curled up against the far wall on a sofa while the rest of us were sitting around the table. It was just the Flock in the room and the baby that Mum had brought from the station. Angela was outside and we could hear the soft murmur of conversation outside. Max sat rigidly and I could tell there were more things she was hearing than we could.

_I've told you already, that child needs to be taken care of._  
Max shuddered as Jeb's voice rattled around her mind, echoing the words being said outside the door.  
_I cannot justify the murder of a child Jacob. None the less my grandchild._  
_He's not your grandchild, and he's not mine, he's the product of a miscarriage of science and cloning._ Jeb said.  
_Are you willing to kill your daughters child Jeb for the sake of your act of heroism?_  
_Like I said, not my problem. Simply a mistake._ There was a silence between the two minds and Max glanced at the baby laying in Aires's arms. Did he guess he was holding his child? Would he guess?  
_You've changed Jeb_. _I've grown up Angela, nothing more. And maybe its time you did the same, you've Seen what happens, you know this can only have one outcome. Or are you just too weak to realize that?_  
Max didn't need her Voice to hear the slap of palm on Jeb's face, everyone looked up at the door. The baby gurgled in Aires's arms.  
The door opened and Angela stepped inside the room, slamming the door behind her but not before Max saw the sneer of Jeb's face outside in the corridor. Angela clenched her fists for a moment then her face softened and she walked over to her son as he sat, shadowed eyes and bent back, a picture of mourning.  
Angela stood beside him and motioned toward the balcony that led off the room. They left the room and shut the door behind them, shutting out the Flock and turning to one another. Max shut out the words that echoed through her head as Angela spoke to her son. Aires's eyes went from Max to the baby in his arms then to his mother. He slid down the far wall and sat stunned on the ground, then Angela sat beside him and put and arm around his fallen shoulders.  
Max looked away and she realized the rest of the Flock was looking at her. Her heart froze as Fang looked at her, fearing what Fang would think of her after learning what Angela had said in the Seaking. But he only held her hand over the table and nodded toward the balcony, no words, but his support and love encased within those simple gestures.  
She stood up, kissed his cheek and went out onto the balcony and sat next to Aires.  
"Dad shock." Aires suddenly looked up as Max sat beside him.  
"What?"  
"Teenage dads pushing buggies and changing diapers. Dad shock." A small laugh left Aires, his rough hands taking hold of his son's. "Have you thought of a name?"  
"Yeah." Tears welled up in his eyes and the baby frowned as if asking what was wrong. "Phoenix, for Nudge. You know. From the ashes" "Phoenix. Little Phoenix." Max took hold of Aires's shoulder and nodded. "Good name. Good name." They sat there for a long time, then the moment shattered.  
A uniformed agent walked in and looked round for Angela before stepping onto the balcony, his face grim and shadowed in the early morning sun over Virginia.  
"Los Angeles has just been hit. We were too late to get King. He's gone"

**Sorry for the wait, have recently got a job at the local book shop (oh the irony) and I haven't had much time for writing. More to come soon.**


End file.
